In his first season as an NHL bench boss with the Avalanche, Roy bested Tampa Bay's Jon Cooper and Detroit's Mike Babcock for the Jack Adams Award as NHL coach of the year Tuesday night at the league's gala at the Wynn Las Vegas.

"There's no way a coach can win this award without a total commitment from his players," Roy said in his acceptance speech.

Roy was a top-three selection on 89 of the 95 ballots cast, including 68 first-place votes, for 399 voting points. He is the first coach to claim the Jack Adams Award in his first NHL season behind the bench since Washington's Bruce Boudreau in 2008.

Roy lifted the Avalanche (52-22-8, 112 points) to a historic turnaround in his rookie season as an NHL head coach, helping the team finish third in the overall League standings after placing 29th in 2012-13. Colorado became the first club since the NHL expanded to 21 teams in 1979 to go from the bottom three to top three in a single season. The Avalanche matched a franchise record for wins, recorded the NHL's best road mark (26-11-4), ranked fourth in the League in goals (250) and did not suffer a regulation loss when leading after two periods (35-0-3).

"To all Avalanche fans, thank you for your support. See you in the fall," Roy said.

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